Review Questions Flashcards
What is sustainable development and its three key elements?
Development that provides for this generation’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Main 3 dimensions are economic, environmental (ecological), and social.
Describe the circular or “stages” policy making model and its merits (advantages and disadvantages of the model)
❑ Problem formation ➢ Problem or issue perceived and demands for action made
❑ Policy agenda ➢ Demands recognized and problems placed on agenda for action of public organization and decision-maker
❑ Policy formation ➢ Acceptable course of action developed to deal with problem
❑ Policy adoption ➢ Policy selected and made as a policy statement
❑ Policy implementation ➢ Policy statement implemented by government agency, w/ legislative oversight or judicial review
❑ Policy evaluation ➢ Informal or informal of effectiveness, w/suggested improvements
❑ Often iterative process, w/o clear demarcations
What is the definition of policy, and what are the 4 important elements of that definition?
“purposive course of action or inaction that an actor or set of actors takes to deal with a problem”
What is the difference between government and governance?
Government consists of formal institutions with statutory authority to make, implement, and administer laws, rules, regulations, and policies.
Governance is the political processes that exist among formal institutions, ngo’s, communities, interest groups, private organizations, and others to define, discuss, implement, and assess policies in a dynamic policy network. Consider public-private partnerships as part of this.
Define “problem” as it relates to policy making
An unsettled question in need of consideration or solution. An indicator of dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Differentiate between polity, politics, and policy
What is a policy statement?
A written expression of the intended policy and course of action that an organization intends to pursue
What is policy output? How is it different that policy outcome?
The term “outputs” refers to the actions that the government actually performs. The term “outcomes” refers to the results that are caused by those outputs. … In evaluation and performance monitoring, there is an ongoing effort to focus on evaluating policy outcomes rather than outputs.
What are Incrementalism and Rationalism with regards to decision making?
Rational comprehensive decision making assumes that decision makers have almost all the information about a problem, its causes, and alternative solutions. They way all these and select the best alternative that maximizes the desired objective.
Incrementalism or bounded rationality assumes that policy change is accomplished through small, incremental steps that allow decision makers to adjust policies in response to prior success or failure.
What is the Monongahela Decision?
In November 1973, the Federal District Court of the Northern District of West Virginia curtailed the authority of the U. S. Forest Service (USFS) to sell timber on the Monongahela National Forest (MNF). Local residents protested the use of clearcutting practices on the MNF, and finding the USFS unresponsive to their concerns, sought recourse through the courts. The case of Izaak Walton League v. Butz was filed in the Federal District Court in Elkins, WV, and the November 1973 ruling by Judge Robert E. Maxwell stated that the USFS was in violation of the Organic Act of 1897, which stipulated that only “dead, physiologically mature, and large growth” trees that had been marked individually for cutting could be sold (Weitzman, 1977:1). Judge Maxwell placed a restraining order on timber harvests on the MNF (Berman and Howe, 1992).
In August 1975, the “Maxwell Decision” was upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the restrictions on timber harvesting were applied to the National Forests in the area served by the Fourth Circuit–West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina (Weitzman, 1977; Berman and Howe, 1992). One week after the “Monongahela Decision” had been handed down, the Chief of the USFS ordered that timber sales on the nine National Forests in the four states be stopped. The Monongahela Decision set a precedent that could be cited in other appellate courts, and therefore posed a threat to timbering on the entire National Forest System. The court decision on the Monongahela National Forest and similar challenges in other regions effectively stopped clearcutting on the National Forests.
Draw and describe the agenda setting model and how it helps explain how different groups may have different access based on their power and influence.
❑ Well organized groups with established access
➢ The U.S. Lumber Coalition, AMA, ABA, API, Chamber of commerce, NRA
➢ Personal access to gatekeepers
❑ Well organized group w/o established access
➢ Environmental groups
➢ Teachers, labor unions
➢ Inside game – but less clout
❑ Poorly organized group with established access
➢ Loggers; coal workers
➢ Good local contacts, poorer state and national
❑ Poorly organized group w/o established access
➢ Homeless people - Ninth ward in New Orleans
➢ Indigenous people in tropical rain forests
➢ Need to expand issues – outside game
What are some factors that enhance or limit issue expansion?
What is a public policy issue and how do they arise?
❑ Issue
➢ A matter in dispute between two or more parties: a point of debate or controversy
➢ The point at which an unsettled matter is ready for a decision
What is a policy agenda? What types are there?
Problems that are acknowledged by policy makers and receive serious attention comprise the policy agenda.
What is agenda setting?
Influence over the importance of topics or issues on the public agenda.
What is a problem?
➢ A question for inquiry, consideration, or solution
➢ An intricate or unsettled question
Someone or some group is not satisfied with the current policy (status quo)
Discuss the ways that you could respond to harassment, bullying or unethical conduct in the workplace and their merits and drawbacks.
Provide three commonly used criteria in policy formation process and illustrate (diagrammatically) how they can interact to produce both weak and strong sustainability. Explain your rationale.
Environment, economy, and society
